What's the best way to set SEO goals and KPIs for your business?

1 Understand your current situation

Before you can set SEO goals and KPIs, you need to assess your current performance and identify your strengths and weaknesses. You can use various tools and methods to audit your website, such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, SEO crawlers, and keyword research tools. These will help you understand how your site ranks, how much traffic and conversions you get, what keywords and topics you target, and what technical and content issues you need to fix.

2 Define your SEO goals

Once you have a clear picture of your current situation, you can define your SEO goals based on your business objectives and priorities. Your SEO goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, you might want to increase your organic traffic by 20% in six months, or improve your conversion rate by 10% in one year. Your SEO goals should also be aligned with your overall marketing and sales goals, such as generating more leads, revenue, or brand awareness.

3 Choose your SEO KPIs

To measure your progress and success towards your SEO goals, you need to choose the right SEO KPIs (key performance indicators). These are the metrics that reflect the impact of your SEO efforts on your business outcomes. Some of the most common SEO KPIs include organic traffic, rankings, conversions, revenue, and CTR. Organic traffic is the number of visitors that come to your site from organic search results. Organic rankings measure the position of your site or pages for specific keywords or topics in the SERPs. Organic conversions refer to the number of visitors that perform a desired action on your site, such as filling out a form, subscribing to a newsletter, or making a purchase. Organic revenue is the amount of money that you generate from organic conversions. Lastly, organic CTR is the percentage of organic visitors that click on your site or pages in the SERPs.

4 Track and analyze your SEO performance

To track and analyze your SEO performance, you need to use the tools and methods that you used to audit your current situation. You should monitor your SEO KPIs regularly and compare them with your SEO goals and benchmarks. You should also look for trends, patterns, and insights that can help you understand what works and what doesn't for your SEO strategy. For example, you might notice that some keywords or pages drive more traffic or conversions than others, or that some technical or content changes have improved or harmed your rankings.

5 Adjust and optimize your SEO strategy

Based on your tracking and analysis, you should adjust and optimize your SEO strategy accordingly. You should identify the areas that need improvement or more focus, and implement the necessary actions to achieve your SEO goals. You should also test and experiment with different tactics and techniques to find the best solutions for your site and audience. For example, you might try to optimize your site speed, update your content, create new landing pages, or target new keywords or topics.

Setting SEO goals and KPIs for your business is an ongoing and dynamic process that requires constant monitoring, analysis, and optimization. By following these steps and principles, you can create a realistic and measurable SEO plan that aligns with your business goals and delivers the best results for your site and audience.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?